First of all, the Green text is hard on the eye's at 12:30am! Aside from that, there's always a good sounding Ampeg Jet reissue with a changed speaker( Celestion Neo ), that sounds close to what your looking for used, at $300- $400.00! IMHO.

I just got a Voc AC50CP2 50 watt combo. I normally prefer heads for two reasons: weight and ability to use different speaker(s) combinations. That said, this amp is pretty special in that it seems that it is very well built and designed. The Wolftone speakers are great, the clean channel is sweet. and the dirty channel simply rocks as hard as you wan it to. The dirty channel is also great for a nice crunchy tone or for that low gain. but edgy drive thing. You will probably not be as lucky to find one for 700+ (blem/refurb) at Musician's Friend. The only thing I can find "wrong" with it is a small scuff in the tolex on the rear of it. That said, if I had know how good this amp was, I would have no reservations about spending $1000 for a new one. It is truley an extraordinary amplifier. As far as gigging, I cannot think of a better amp both price and quality wise. As with most good tube combos, this too is a heavy f***er. That is the only bad thing I can think of. As previously mentioned though, all GOOD combos are heavy no matter what the name is on it!!!

All are good workhorses, and all can be had in the $500 range used. Personally, I recommend the Voxes and Peavey classic 30 if you dig the tone. Simply because it is easy to cart around a couple of pairs of extra power tubes for an EL-84 amp. If this is your ONLY workhorse, that's important. Sure it doesn't take much to cart around an extra pair of 6v's or 6l's (but get color coded groove tubes so you don't have to rebias if you blow a power tube on stage, your night is over), but you can throw a quad of 84's in a gigbag.

I use a DRRI for alot of club dates. I also use a Mesa Rocket a great deal. My main rig these days is a Carr Hammerhead. But as I often have multiple engagements on a night or weekend, I have different rigs in different places and have found the other two (both sub-$600 amps used) to be equally pleasing to the ear for different reasons. Obviously I can't afford to have two $3000 Carr's, one with me and one with my other band. And in years past I couldn't afford the Carr period. In both situations, the Fender and Mesa have served me well.

You would also be surprised how much you can get done with a Fender Blues Junior (mic'd). And those are in the $300 range used. I see alot of them in the clubs and have used a pair as loaners on occasion.

You mention what you like (the Orange) but I am not all that familiar with it.

A much better thing would be to tell us a little more about WHAT kind of music and sounds you will be using the amp for, what you feel you need as far as features (two-channel? Reverb? clean that breaks up or clean that has lots of headroom and stays pretty clean at higher volumes? watts? what kind of "work", as in small clubs or?? do you need an effects loop? Will you be using pedals? will the amp be miked or need to be big enough to go unmiked?)

You can see already, the answers you get are all over the place, from blues junior (which I think would have to be miked) to larger.

I assume the keyword "workingmans amp" would imply not expensive, but very rugged and not requiring a lot of maintenance or fiddling...like a mass produced, solid, good sounding amp, but we still need to know what you play, what you consider essential in an amp, etc.

I have 3 types of rigs for 3 types of gigs. All are designed to be "easy in, easy out" and light transport because I have a bum leg and can't lug around a half stack or stack like I used to. All of these setups are also price conscious and won't break the bank. Plus there's nothing here that is boutique, so I have no fear of gigging hard with any of them.

Small gig: Fender Pro Junior
Small to medium: Vox AC15
Med. to Large: Crate Powerblock with a 2x12 Avatar Cab.

With those setups and my pedals I can pretty much hang with anyone at any volume even if the house doesn't mic the amps.

+1 on the Peavey Classic 30! That's what I use, and with JJ tubes (Eurotubes.com) and a new Speaker (still yet to come for me) this thing is great. Loud enough for regular small - medium gigs and sounds good to my ears.